62 MOST REVEREND, GRAVE, AND POTENT SIGNORS.

be knocked to pieces, it really would be an infringement on the boasted liberty of the subject to prevent them. I leave it to abler controversialists than I to decide how far in a national point of view the Ring may have a prejudicial or beneficial effect on the conduct of the lower classes. I believe, as we are told in-I forget the play-" much may be said on both sides." I am no casuist; but really when men from inclination place themselves in a situation where they are certain to get more or less of a sound thrashing even if they win, we have a right to infer that all in all they like the thing, and I think I deserve the approval rather than the censure of ladies for my philanthropic feelings in going to see such men enjoy themselves.

Bull-baiting, dog-fighting, bear and badger baiting, are all in themselves such atrocious acts of useless and wanton barbarity, that they have been at last put a stop to; that is, if attempted in public. I should, however, be extremely sorry to be guilty of so glaring an act of injustice as to accuse our Legislature of having interfered with these gentlemanlike amusements from any feelings of kindness or mercy towards the animals engaged in them; for let any person from motives of humanity propose any act or any new law that has for its purpose the mere protection of animals from oppression and cruelty, his proposition will be certain to be met with not only neglect but ridicule and contempt: the collecting a crowd of idle persons together in the public highways, or on another's lands, is what is objected to; and this would be objected to if the same crowd collected to see half a dozen dogs, bears, or badgers eating calf's foot jelly. The proposal to extend the prevention of dogs being

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"I WOULD NOT CURSE A DOG THUS." used to carts in the country was at once cried down. If it was absolutely necessary to put a stop to the system in London, it certainly must have been considered a nuisance there, and a dangerous one. Now there might be perhaps more danger and nuisance occasioned by their use in London than elsewhere; but certainly not to that extended degree as to make it advisable to prevent it there, and leave such densely populated towns as Bristol, Manchester, Liverpool, Birmingham, and many others, subject to nearly the same dangers and annoyances. If compassion to the animal, and to save him from ill-usage, bore any part in the consideration of those who stopped the system -which I do not believe it did-there is no more reason an animal should be ill used in one place than in another. If it was thought it brought on canine madness, the inhabitants of such towns as I have mentioned can never be grateful enough for being left to its effects! A dog tied under a cart can be very little if any more nuisance in London than in any other town. If drawing carts or waggons they are likely to cause horses to start in London or in any town, they are much more likely to do so in the country; for whoever knows any thing about horses knows that the same objects that he passes without in any way noticing them in crowded streets will make him fly out of the road in the country. Let ten horses on a country road meet two dogs running along in a rattling cart or waggon with some great hulking monster riding in it, I will venture to say nine out of the ten start and are really frightened by its unusual appearance. It was stated by a sapient and merciful Member, that dogs drawing enable many men to get a living by carrying small goods about

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ACTEON'S FATE TO THEM.

for sale it may enable a few to do this, but I know what it also does it enables a set of idle, dissolute fellows to get about the country by this ostensible way of living, but whose real living is by thieving, housebreaking, and perhaps worse. I should mention another very desirable benefit the public gains by dogs drawing in the country; it enables all the thimble-rig gentry and pickpockets to get about much more readily than they could before their use, and to escape punishment for their robberies by their dogs affording them the means of immediate flight. You may see one of these scoundrels at a race this morning, and by travelling all night he will force his unfortunate dogs to take him fifty miles to another, where he commences operations the next morning. A case was instanced of deformed or crippled objects who get about the country by means of their dogs: this is brought forward as a strong plea in favour of their use being allowed, when in fact it is a strong plea for their being put down. Such objects have no business going about the country at all: they should be taken care of and kept out of sight. It is perfectly well known the truly awful effects frequently produced under certain circumstances by women meeting such objects. If such deformities are not allowed to exhibit themselves to alarm or disgust the Aristocracy in Belgrave Square, why is the humbler but equally estimable female inhabitant of other towns and places to be alarmed and shocked by their appearance? That nearly all the dog-cart travelling fellows are thieves is an indisputable fact. There is a fellow goes from a town I often visit; he is known by the police to be a reputed thief and house-breaker, but has hitherto escaped detection. He leaves this town on a Monday;

INDUSTRY AND ECONOMY COMMENDABLE.

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by the Saturday he generally returns with about a sack of bones, by the collecting of which he pretends to live. It would certainly be a great cruelty to prevent so industrious and self-denying a man from earning an honest livelihood, for the profit on a sack of bones is not much to support a very hale man, his wife, children, and two dogs! The fact is, if he is concerned in a burglary or robbery, we will say at Hungerford in Berkshire, at one o'clock on Tuesday morning, by seven or eight o'clock the same morning he is seen with his jaded dogs and a bushel of bones in the streets at Northampton, forty miles off, and directly across the country. This is one of the industrious lot who would be deprived of their bread by putting down the dog-cart trade! We are told that men are assisted greatly by dogs in their labours by mutually drawing, or rather by one shoving, the other drawing a cart or barrow; that they divide the labour! Yes, they do divide it, as you may a walnut -eat the kernel yourself, and give your partner the shells. The way the labour is generally divided is this: the dog not only draws the cart, but assists the two-legged beast along, who holds on by the handles; and when exhausted by this, he (not the man, I wish he was,) is visited from time to time with the application of constant kicks, within the reach of which you will always find the dog fastened.

A degree of sophistry was used to show, or rather an assertion was made by some one, that a man would not ill-use a dog more than a horse for his own interest's sake. This is real sophistry. In the first place, a man may very much ill-use a horse, and find his interest in so doing in a pecuniary point of view. For instance: a wretched ill-fed over-worked

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animal will drag coals about a street for a very long time before he sinks under his sufferings, and as probably his cost price was 30s., his loss, if he does die, is not very great. The saving of 5s. a-week in his keep pays for him in six weeks, whereas he probably will last twenty; so here, by half-starving and over-working him, we find the owner has made 57. ; and deducting the 30s. first cost, he clears 37. 10s.; and so he will by his next purchase. But the poor dog has a much worse chance: he is probably bought for half-a-crown, or more probably stolen; so all that is got out of him is nearly clear gain. How, therefore, those who voted for a continuance of this system reconcile it to their feelings either of humanity to the animal or justice to that part of the community who reside in provincial towns or the country, appears to me as incomprehensible. They certainly do not trouble themselves much in considering what is and what is not cruelty.

I have stated, that all public exhibitions of bull, bear, badger, and dog-fighting were put a stop to: but I believe still, if a man chose to bait his own bull in his own barn, to whatever extent he might carry the barbarity of the thing, a trifling fine, if the Society for Preventing Cruelty happened to hear of it, would be his only punishment: the legislature might say, "A man may do as he pleases in his own. premises: we must not interfere with the liberty of the subject!" What glorious liberty to be allowed to torture an animal as much as I please provided I pay 40s.! "Not interfere with the liberty of the subject!" "A man has a right to choose his pursuits in his own premises!" I should like to know, if my pursuit was having a private still on my